Brindled beauty

Short description: Species of moth

Brindled beauty

Male of Lycia hirtaria
Scientific classification
Kingdom:  | Animalia
Phylum:  | Arthropoda
Class:  | Insecta
Order:  | Lepidoptera
Family:  | Geometridae
Genus:  | Lycia
Species:  |

L. hirtaria

Binomial name
Lycia hirtaria

(Clerck, 1759)

The brindled beauty (Lycia hirtaria) is a Palearctic moth belonging to the family Geometridae.

## Contents

* 1 Subspecies
* 2 Distribution
* 3 Habitat
* 4 Description
* 5 Biology
* 6 See also
* 7 References
* 8 External links

## Subspecies

* Lycia hirtaria cataloniae Vojnits & Mészáros, 1973
* Lycia hirtaria diniensis (Oberthür, 1913)
* Lycia hirtaria hanoviensis (Heymons, 1891)
* Lycia hirtaria hirtaria (Clerck, 1760)
* Lycia hirtaria istriana (Galvagni, 1901)
* Lycia hirtaria pusztae Vojnits, 1971
* Lycia hirtaria uralaria (Krulikovsky, 1909)

[1]

## Distribution

This species can be found in most of Europe, including Russia , Caucasus, Transcaucasia, Asia Minor, South Siberia, Yakutia, Russian Far East, Sakhalin and Japan .[2]

## Habitat

These moths prefer woodland and suburban areas.[3]

## Description

Female of Lycia hirtaria

The brindled beauty has a wingspan of 4–5 cm. It is a large-bodied furry moth, which has a pattern which provides near-perfect camouflage on tree trunks and also gives the moth its name. The forewing ground colour is usually grey with black dusting. There is a curved anterior and a curved exterior cross line limiting the midfield. The Hindwings are also grey and have two or three crosslines. The females have a pale yellow suffusion on the wings and the front edges of their forewings are paler.[4] The males show large comb-like antennae.[5]

Young caterpillar of Lycia hirtaria

Variation female-ab. terroraria Krulik. is described as unicolorous grey, with weak traces of the lines on the veins of the forewing. Female -ab. fumaria Haw. is fuscous or smoky black, in extreme examples entirely unmarked.- diniensis Ob. differs little from the name-type, but the lines appear to be very strong and thick. Figured without description. Basses-Alpes.- ab. fasciata [Prout] is a beautiful modification of diniensis with the antemedian line double and with a blackish band extending from the median line of the forewing to the subterminal. Le Canadel. Var, France, - ab. flavescens [Prout] may be taken as the name of the more yellow-mixed form which is common in England, N. France, etc.- ab. congeneraria Hbn. has the antemedian and postmedian lines very distinctly double. Possibly forms a separate race in Algeria - istriana Galv. is a large, whitish-mixed form from Istria- hanoviensis Heymons is a small race, more densely scaled, the ground-colour more mixed with ochreous-yellow, the dark markings extended into strong suffusions.[6]

## Biology

Adult caterpillar of Lycia hirtaria

The brindled beauty is nocturnal. The moths fly from March to the end of May, and the males are attracted to light.[3][5]

The egg is ellipsoid, micropylar and somewhat concave and granulated; the rest of the surface somewhat glossy, the granulation discernible on strong magnification.[6]

The caterpillar of the brindled beauty ranges from greyish-green or brown in colour purplish, with thread-like longitudinal black lines and with yellow marks near the segment incisions.[4][6]

The caterpillar is polyphagous, mainly feeding from late spring to early summer [5] on broad-leaved trees and deciduous shrubs (Betula, Quercus, Alnus, Fraxinus, Ulmus, Salix, Populus, Berberis, Ribes, Rosa, Rubus, Filipendula, Malus, Sorbus, Crataegus, Prunus, Tilia, Rhamnus, Vaccinium).[7] The pupa overwinters.

## See also

* Lepidoptera
* Moth
* Geometridae

## References

1. ↑ Biolib
2. ↑ Fauna Europaea
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 UK Moths
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Carter, David. Butterflies and Moths, Dorling Kindersley, pg 200
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 The Butterflies and Moths of Northern Ireland
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Prout, L.B. 1912–16. Geometridae. In A. Seitz (ed.) The Macrolepidoptera of the World. The Palaearctic Geometridae, 4. 479 pp. Alfred Kernen, Stuttgart.
7. ↑ Paolo Mazzei, Daniel Morel, Raniero Panfili Moths and Butterflies of Europe and North Africa

* Carter, David - Butterflies and Moths (Dorling Kindersley Handbooks), Dorling Kindersley Ltd. London, 1992 ISBN 0-7513-2707-7.

## External links

* Lepiforum.de

Wikidata ☰ Q46091 entry

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